Choosing An Image File to Download

For Bering-uClibc 5.x there are several different disk image files available for download. These offer a choice of tailored variants of the same basic distribution and you should only need to download one of them - the one that best matches your requirements.
The different variables are:

The Linux kernel optimisations:

i486 is the most basic and most widely compatible kernel variant, suitable for Intel 486 CPUs (or better).

Download Location

For the most standard Image variant, look for a file named like Bering-uClibc_5.x_i486_isolinux_vga.tar.gz (ISO image to boot from CD-ROM) or Bering-uClibc_5.x_i486_syslinux_vga.tar.gz (Image to boot from USB-/Flash-/HD-drives).

It is advised to choose the latest available Bering-uClibc_5.x version.

Copying to the Installation Media

Copying an isolinux Image to CD-ROM

The CD-ROM Images (boot media type isolinux) are delivered as .iso files which must be copied to CD-ROM media using an optical media "burning" program.
Alternatively and especially for testing purposes, a Virtual PC solution (such as "qemu") can boot directly from a .iso file.

The structure of the files and directories within the ISO image is as follows:

The following assumes that the flash media has been physically removed from the system which will be running Bering-uClibc 5.x and can be accessed on another Linux system using a USB interface such as a Compact Flash-to-USB adaptor.

once again replace X with the device node of your media.
This will write the Syslinux mbr code (mbr.bin) into the master boot record of the drive.

Installing SYSLINUX results in file ldlinux.sys being created in the root of the FAT32 file system. Do not attempt to edit or move this file since that will break the SYSLINUX operation.

For Bering-uClibc 5.x the Linux kernel and the SYSLINUX configuration files have been relocated to the syslinux/ directory of the boot disk. However, file ldlinux.sys should remain in the root directory (although by using the -d directory argument to syslinux this can be moved to a different pre-existing directory on the boot disk, if desired).

If the other requirements (i.e. the single, bootable, FAT32-formatted disk partition) are not met you will also need to use:

fdisk or parted to partition the drive.

mkfs.vfat to create the FAT32 file system.

Extracting the Image Files

Once the flash media is prepared the contents of the disk Image need to be extracted.
Change to the directory where the flash media is mounted and extract the contents of the downloaded file with a command like the following

tar -xvzf ~/Download/Bering-uClibc_5.0_i486_syslinux_vga.tar.gz

Note that this assumes the downloaded file is located in your $HOME/Download directory.

Remove the flash media from the Linux PC and proceed to the next Chapter.

Copying a pxelinux Image to a Network Boot Server

Note: pxelinux boot support is currently under development and is not yet available in the standard Bering-uClibc 5.x downloads.
Refer to Trac ticket #3 for the latest status.

Much of the complexity of a pxelinux installation is associated with setup of the DHCP server that delivers the PXE boot filename, the TFTP server that delivers the initial boot image etc. These are not specific to Bering-uClibc 5.x and so are not covered in detail here but some guidelines and pointers to other sources of information can be found in the Network Booting Appendix.

The Images suitable for network booting (boot media type pxelinux) are delivered as .tar.gz files which must be extracted onto suitable file server(s).

The structure of the files and directories within the .tar.gz file is as follows:

File Server Protocol Selection

Bering-uClibc 5.x supports a number of different file sharing protocol options for network boot and installation (or at least it is planned to).
These are:

FTP

File Transfer Protocol, on TCP port 21

TFTP

Trivial File Transfer Protocol, on UDP port 69

Note that a TFTP server is essential for delivering the initial boot image, (g)pxelinux.0, and its configuration file.

The same TFTP server can also be used for delivering the Linux kernel file (linux) and the initial RAM disk file (initrd.lrp).

HTTP

HyperText Transport Protocol, on TCP port 80

SSH

Secure SHell, on TCP port 22

Note that this is not supported by (g)pxelinux.0 for delivering the Linux kernel file (linux) and the initial RAM disk files (initrd.lrp nd initmod.lrp) and hence cannot be used as the only network boot protocol.

For the purposes of this document it is assumed that TFTP will be used only to deliver (g)pxelinux.0 and pxelinux.cfg/default and that an HTTP server will be used to deliver the remainder of the files.

Specify the "next server" IP address and a PXE "boot filename". Based on the structure within the pxelinux .tar.gz file this "boot filename" probably needs to be specified as: bering-uclibc/5/gpxelinux.0 since it is normally relative to the tftpboot/ level of the directory structure.